Trinity Game Notes

67th Meeting

Williams College Ephs (1-0)

vs.

Trinity College Bantams (1-0)

1:30 pm

Saturday, September 27th

Weston Field

Williamstown, MA

SERIES: Began in 1884. Williams leads the series 35-29-2. Williams lost last year's match-up, a triple-overtime thriller in Hartford, 46-40.  The game also marked the Ephs’ last loss, as Williams has rattled off seven-straight wins since then.  Two years ago during Williams undefeated 2006 season the Ephs snapped the Bantams 31-game win streak that was leading the nation.

Since the late 1980s this has been one of the nation's best-played rivalries. In 1988 Williams lost at Trinity 24-20 (in the first of five consecutive games between the Ephs and Bantams that were decided by a TD or less). The Ephs then posted consecutive remarkable comeback wins over the Bantams in 1989, 26-21, and 24-21 in 1990 on their way to 23 wins in a row. That streak ended in 1991 on Weston Field when Trinity won 30-27 on the last play of the game. The 1991 game featured four lead changes in the final 2:47. Current Trinity head coach Jeff Devanney played for the Bantams in that game on defense.

In 1993, Trinity beat Williams 21-7 in Hartford, which would be the Ephs' last loss until 1996. In that span, the Ephs went on a 23-game unbeaten streak (22 wins, one tie), which Trinity snapped on Weston Field, taking a 14-13 victory.

Williams was also the last team to defeat Trinity before their streak, winning 30-13, in the September 28, 2002 match-up played on Weston Field, before the Bantams ran off the skein of 31 straight wins that came to a halt on Weston Field September of 2006.

COACHES: The Ephs' Mike Whalen (25-6) is in his fifth year as the Williams head coach, during which time his teams have never finished worse than 6-2. Whalen was previously the Ephs' head wrestling coach from 1996 to 2003, and the offensive line coach for the same span, including the last three years as offensive coordinator.

In 2007 Whalen guided the Ephs to a 6-2 record after the Ephs dropped two heartbreakers to open the season.  He also led the 2006 Ephs to the sixth perfect season in Williams history, extending the Eph win streak at the time to 14 and earning NESCAC Coach of the Year honors. He was also the only New England coach to finish in the top 25 in Liberty Mutual's Coach of the Year program among coaches in all divisions of college football.

Whalen, a 1983 graduate of Wesleyan University, captained both the football and wrestling teams while earning All-New England and All-American honors three times. Whalen's football coaching resume also includes stops at Springfield, Penn, Lafayette, and Colgate

Jeff Devanney (13-3) begins his third season as head coach at Trinity. A 1993 Trinity graduate and star player in football and baseball for the Bantams, Devanney was voted the NESCAC Football Defensive Player of the Year in 1992. Devanney was Trinity's defensive line coach in 2001 and the secondary coach from 2002 to 2004, before taking on duties as the defensive coordinator in 2005 and then becoming the head coach in 2006.

FAMILY TIES: Trinity offensive coordinator Chris Rorke is the son of former Eph running back Danny Rorke '59 and the brother of former Eph running back/wrestler Sean Rorke '93.

Eph secondary coach Dan DiCenzo '01 began his coaching career at Trinity as a graduate assistant under Chuck Priore at Trinity.

Trinity assistant coach Mike Blair is a 2006 graduate of Trinity and he served as an assistant under Mike Whalen in 2006 and also assisted with the Eph wrestling team before returning to the Trinity staff this summer.

RADIO - INTERNET:  The Williams College student station, WCFM (91.9 FM) will air each game live. To hear the game on the Internet on WCFM go to Shoutcast.com  and type in WCFM. Choose one of the streams based on the quality you want (56kbps for a dial up modem, 128kbps recommended overall for stability/fidelity), which will be opened in a music player like Winamp (recommended) or iTunes.
 
TEAMLINE:  TEAMLINE is a pay-to-listen service. You can listen over your telephone or over the Internet to the game by contacting TEAMLINE.
 
Internet: go to the Eph football page on TEAMLINE.
 
The Eph access code is: 0126.
 
Telephone: dial 1-800-846-4700 and follow the prompts. The Eph access code is 0126.

LIVE STATS: You can view Live Stats of this game on Saturday by clicking here.

STREAKS: Williams enters the contest riding a 7-game win streak, while Trinity is riding a 3-game win streak.

AWARDS: 6 returning Eph seniors earned All-NESCAC honors last year:

1^st Team: RB Brian Morrissey, OL John Szawlowski, WR Ryan Powell,  LB Trevor Powers 

2^nd Team: OL Henry Szawlowski, DB Tim Batty

Senior Bantam kicker Adam Cox was a 1^st Team All-NESCAC specialist last year

 

BY THE NUMBERS …

2006 --  Ephs' last win vs. Trinity

167/308 -- Passing offense Bantams/Ephs

164/29 – Passing defense Bantams/Ephs

172/118 – Rushing offense Bantams/Ephs

35/104 – Rushing defense Bantams/Ephs

55/131 – Receiving yards Bants' Connor Wells (5)/Ephs' Nick Caro (9)

116/101 – Rushing yards for Ephs' Brian Morrissey/Bants’ Oliver Starnes last week

6 – Returning Eph seniors earning All-NESCAC honors last year

1 – Returning Bantam senior earning All-NESCAC honors last year

10 – All-NESCAC seniors the Bantams lost from last year

0 – Points scored at halftime of last week’s Eph win over Colby

7 – Eph wins vs. Trinity in last 11 meetings

4 – Years Trinity has led the nation in total defense out of the last 7
 
4 – Losses by Trinity in last six years – two to Williams

Starting Lineups